P: Photoshop 3D features are being removed

[Pattie-F]

As of Photoshop 22.5, released in August 2021, Photoshop’s 3D features will be discontinued. 3D features have enjoyed long success within Photoshop over the course of  10+ years, however the personal computing industry has recently been transitioning away from use of OpenGL  (having to do specifically with the use of GPUs, which is critical for 3D) toward native GPU APIs, which ultimately began the slow deterioration of Photoshop’s 3D features, all of which needed OpenGL. As difficult of a decision as removing 3D features from Photoshop is, the silver lining is that the next generation of 3D content creation tools from Adobe is already here. Check out the Substance line of 3D products.

For more details, please visit Photoshop discontinued 3D Q&A.

[rayek.elfin]

@Alex_R84Agreed, I use a similar workflow.

A work-around is to use Blender to set up the 3d elements for paintovers and import these into Photoshop, or if you need more integrated 3d tools switch to Clip Studio Paint: it does what Photoshop does, but in a more intuitive manner. And the 3d to lineart conversion is excellent.

PS Nice work!

[Alex_R84]

Will Photoshop retain the ability to import .obj?

[MrCetirizine]

Not likely as it would have no tools to do anything with them.

[rayek.elfin]

No. Any OpenGL related functionality is removed - which includes the import of 3d objects.

The developers may add back some things (such as panorama 3d editing), but as far as I am aware they've thrown in the towel in regards to real 3d functionality.

They would have to rewrite the 3D core. And they seem unwilling to do that because Adobe has acquired the Substance tools (which makes sense, but is overlooking the value of 3d object import for overpainting purposes).

[rayek.elfin]

PS by importing 3d elements into Photoshop I meant a rendered bitmap version.

[Alex_R84]

Yes that may end up being my only choice if they dont change course.

[rayek.elfin]

They won't because they cannot: OpenGL is deprecated on Mac, and the devs would have to rewrite/replace the entire 3D core of Photoshop, which is (let's be honest) woefully outdated anyway.

What I imagine is possible, though, is some sort of real-time bridge between a 3D app like Blender and Photoshop via plugins on both sides.

But I made the switch to ClipStudio for my digital painting jobs a long time ago, so this Adobe change doesn't affect me. For you @Alex_R84 and others who rely on this functionality it must be incredibly frustrating.

[MrCetirizine]

Sadly not even that. OBJ don't contain a 2D default image, so PS would need the 3D engine that Adobe are discontinuing.

Blender can import OBJ and render anything you want and output as any format you want.

[marekt93604610]

This is a extremly bad decision. Insted of replacing it and going with the trends, you remove functionality with an update. This is not something I would expect from a company like Adobe. If the goal was to make people leave, well done.

[TheCliqueOnline]

Well... That ends my time with Photoshop. I was a hold out purely for 360 editing. Havent been able to do this for ages thanks to lockdowns, so I am going to cancel my sub now, just no more need for this software.

[defaultbh3l4sw7j06u]

Hi,

This is unfortunate as I rely on Photoshop's UV creating funtion.

Honestly I am having issues with the way Substance Stager is creating UVs for some of my 3D models.

I have checked my topography to make sure there are no user issues.

I model with Gravity Sketch and I often have to create UVs in Photoshop, then output another .obj file.

I must then use the new .obj file in Substance Stager, and finally recreate UVs to ensure that textures map without error.

This is a crazy workflow and should not be necessary considering the price I am paying for Substance.

It will really be a problem if I ever need to update photoshop to the latest version.

Please, if there is something I can do to work around my issue I could use it.

thanks,

Dave Earhart

[davescm]

Use Blender for unwrapping, it is free and gives control over UV unwrapping that Photoshop never did.

Dave

[defaulthhd36tr4dq6f]

You know, as someone with a disability I found work by flying drones since it wasn't phyiscally demanding and I could do 95% of my work from the PC using CC..   I needed the 360 pano editing capabilities for my favorite client.  Now I no longer have the capability to edit for him because he orders very sporatically based on his industry.  Might be good for a couple weeks then nothing for a month...  Guys, you're already holding me by my ankles with the cost of CC...  Do you really think this is the best time to shake people down harder?  I'll definetly be looking for new software that runs similar to PS with Flexify 2 but I know I won't be able to find it.  I'm very disappointed because I was finally doing something that actually helped me.  Lol, what greed you guys have.  It's truly unbealieveable at this point.

[rayek.elfin]

Get Affinity Photo for $25. It is a pretty good replacement for Photoshop's 360 panorama editing.

[Alex_R84]

We used to have 3D included in the cost of Photoshop. I dont understand why they are reducing the versality of the software.

[MrCetirizine]

Greed. Pure and simple greed. They started the subscription model for greed reasons and are continuing by adding extra products at additional cost and ensuring people pay the extra by needlessly removing features from existing products that the new products provide.

The mistake they've made is that there are much cheaper and in many cases better alternatives. They've lost my subscription.

[Alex_R84]

Adobe might take heed of this: I will simply use already free and capable software like Blender to handle 3D. I wont be using your offerings, I will simply use Photoshop less. Perhaps until it is entirely irrelevant to my workflow.

[rayek.elfin]

@MrCetirizineNot quite so simple. The underlying reason is Apple's decision to deprecate OpenGL (a 3D application programming interface that allows applications to render 3d graphics on a system level).

This means that a cross-platform app like Photoshop must be completely rewritten to take advantage of Metal on Mac, and OpenGL or DirectX on Windows. It may be possible to use a 3d wrapper API such as Vulcan as well for both platforms, but all in all it requires a lot of work on the part of the devs to support.

On top of this the 3d functionality in Photoshop is extremely outdated, and in dire need of an update.

And since Adobe already aquired modern industry standard 3d apps for material/texture generation and painting of 3d models, it makes logical sense to drop 3D support in Photoshop.

They have no choice in the matter on the Mac platform: either rewrite everything, or stop supporting 3D functionality. Apple forced their hands, but I agree that Adobe side-stepped their responsibilty to keep the current 3d features in Photoshop up to date in the first place.

And I also agree that ripping out all related 3d functionality just because it is 'inconventiently' dependent on OpenGL, is not the best approach. Many users rely 3d features in Photoshop for 3d panorama editing, 3d overpainting for illustration work, lightning effects, and so on.

Hopefully the Adobe devs plan on reimplementing at least the basic features.

[MrCetirizine]

So you're saying that the multi million dollar software company that's happy to take a considerably high monthly fee from me doesn't want to keep their software updated in an ever changing OS ecosystem because it's hard. And I should what? Feel sorry for them while they continue to increase prices and reduce functionality? I've already found alternatives that are cheaper and much more functional than Adobe products. I'm actually now glad about this as it's given me the opportunity to look at the alternatives and they are better by far.

[Ussnorway]

the real point is to bully developers in to using Metal instead but the problem is it doesn't work very well and no one likes it

[Alex_R84]

Yep. They could rewrite the software from the ground up if they wished to. But they are hobbling the software instead.

[default8xznspe06wr6]

My team and I use Photoshop to create 3D shapes to bring into Adobe Dimension. Please tell me if there is something else we can use to create shapes in Dimension!!!!! This is going to be a problem for our department, everyone has gotten use to 3D Formats. Yikes! Thanks. Lauren

[davescm]

Any proper 3D application can create objects to use in Dimension or Stager. Try Blender, it is free, powerful, and exceeds any modelling capability that Photoshop has/had. 

Dave

[MrCetirizine]

As already mentioned, Blender.

Plus, I wouldn't rely too much on Dimension, it is likely next in line for deprecation as I'm sure it faces the same problem of OpenGL being deprecated on Mac with no cross platform alternative at present.. Blender is infinitely better than Dimension anyway.

[default8xznspe06wr6]

Oh boy, I was afraid of that with Dimension... ok. Thank you for the feedback!!! I will be looking into Blender and the newest Adobe 3D Stuffs.